Federal government clears path for power line

The federal Department of Energy has cleared the way for New York Regional Interconnect to push the state to build a high-voltage power line from Oneida County south to Orange County, just north of New York City.

Today, the DOE designated two National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, one in the mid-Atlantic region and the other in the Southwest.

The mid-Atlantic corridor includes parts of Madison, Chenango and Oneida counties, where the NYRI line would run, as well as Onondaga and Cayuga counties and other parts of Upstate New York, and parts of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. It encompasses all of New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia.

In a release, the DOE said it made the designations because of "persistent transmission congestion" in the two areas.

Kevin Kolevar, DOE assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability, said that groups like NYRI will have to spend another year trying to negotiate solutions with states where the projects will be located. If those talks fail, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could step in and grant eminent domain authority.

Once that's done, companies could buy private lands to build power line projects, Kolevar said.

For more on this story, see staff writer Kathy Coffta Sims' report Wednesday in The Post-Standard.